Precision Cosmology

Abstract

The good agreement between large-scale observations and the predictions of the now-standard $Λ$CDM theory gives us hope that this will become a lasting foundation for cosmology. After briefly reviewing the current status of the key cosmological parameters, I summarize several of the main areas of possible disagreement between theory and observation: big bang nucleosynthesis, galaxy centers, dark matter substructure, and angular momentum, updating my earlier reviews [1]. The issues in all of these are sufficiently complicated that it is not yet clear how serious they are, but there is at least some reason to think that the problems will be resolved through a deeper understanding of the complicated astrophysics involved in such processes as gas cooling, star formation, and feedback from supernovae and AGN. Meanwhile, searches for dark matter are dramatically improving in sensitivity, and gamma rays from dark matter annihilation at the galactic center may have been detected by H.E.S.S.